More than 1,300 registered lobbyists have given slightly more than $1.8 million to President George W. Bush over the last six years, according to a Center for Public Integrity study comparing the donations of all registered lobbyists from 1998 through March 2004. Sen. John Kerry received $520,000 from 442 lobbyists during the same period. Such […]
Posted inNational Security
Early warning
One year before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then-Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White informed a trio of top-level Department of Defense officials that the army lacked the basic information required to effectively manage its burgeoning force of private contractors. In a memorandum dated March 8, 2002, White warned the under secretaries responsible for […]
Posted inEnvironment, Pollution, Wasting Away
Superfund progress drops off under Bush
By every significant measure, the pace of the Superfund program’s progress and success in cleaning up the nation’s worst toxic waste sites has declined in the past six years — and the decline has sparked a heated political debate. Several former Clinton administration officials, environmental activists and Superfund experts blame the decline on a shrinking […]
Posted inDemocracy, Silent Partners
The money pours in
Incomplete disclosure By Derek Willis July 27, 2004 527s – Frequently Asked Questions By The Center for Public Integrity November 21, 2005 Driven by a surge in giving by wealthy individuals, political non-profits raised more than $59 million during the first three months of this year, with much of that money going to groups dedicated […]
Posted inGenetics, Health
Closing in on human cloning
Although two successive presidents have publicly opposed human reproductive cloning, the federal government’s aggressive funding of experiments in cloning technology in nonhuman primates is bringing human cloning closer to reality. Since 1991, the Center for Public Integrity has found, the National Institutes of Health has given more than three dozen grants for cloning-related research in […]
Posted inBroadband, Inequality, Well Connected
Group wants truth in cell phone billing
An organization of state-designated consumer advocates wants federal regulators to force cellular telephone providers to clear up their billing practices. The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates is a group of 44 government officials and consumer advocates in 42 states and the District of Columbia with statutory authority to represent the interests of utility […]
Posted inBroadband, Inequality, Well Connected
Indecency on the air
The Federal Communications Commission has proposed $4.5 million in fines for broadcast indecency since 1990, with more than half the total assessed to stations that aired shock-radio pioneer Howard Stern. Yesterday, the FCC proposed a $495,000 fine against six Clear Channel Communications Corp. stations that aired Stern’s show, prompting the giant radio broadcaster to drop […]
Posted inBroadband, Inequality, Well Connected
FCC managers still flying free
Since Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell promised seven months ago to “substantially reduce” travel funded by outside sources, the agency has accepted $90,000-worth of free trips, according to an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity. FCC spokesman David Fiske told the Center in February there would be no more industry-funded travel by commissioners […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Important dates: Federal campaign finance legislation
The state money race By Derek Willis March 25, 2004 Methodology By The Center for Public Integrity March 25, 2004 1867: Naval Appropriations Bill The first federal attempt to regulate campaign finance. Prohibited officers and employees of the government from soliciting money from naval yard workers. 1883: Civil Service Reform Act Extended the above rule […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Party of one
Professional advice By Alexander Cohen March 25, 2004 National GOP exchanges soft money for hard in Florida By John Dunbar October 24, 2002 In the 2002 election cycle, 16 leadership committees—essentially political action committees run by elected politicians—in five states raised and spent more than $17 million. State legislative leaders—senate and house majority and minority […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Professional advice
The state money race By Derek Willis March 25, 2004 Party of one By Robert Morlino March 25, 2004 Of the $790 million spent by state political party and caucus committees during the 2001-2002 cycle, almost half went to a collection of strategists, pollsters and mailing houses that specialize in swaying voters. Just 51 consulting […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
The state money race
The old soft money By Derek Willis and Aron Pilhofer March 25, 2004 Professional advice By Alexander Cohen March 25, 2004 Important dates: Federal campaign finance legislation By The Center for Public Integrity March 25, 2004 Methodology By The Center for Public Integrity March 25, 2004 State parties raised nearly $823 million in the 2001-2002 […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
The old soft money
State parties adjust to McCain-Feingold By Derek Willis August 26, 2004 The state money race By Derek Willis March 25, 2004 Methodology By The Center for Public Integrity March 25, 2004 Undisclosed By Katy Lewis, Robert Moore, Leah Rush and MaryJo Sylwester September 26, 2002 Seven of every 10 dollars that state party and caucus […]
Posted inDemocracy, Elections, Party Lines
Methodology
Important dates: Federal campaign finance legislation By The Center for Public Integrity March 25, 2004 The state money race By Derek Willis March 25, 2004 The old soft money By Derek Willis and Aron Pilhofer March 25, 2004 Party Lines is the product of on-going work obtaining and analyzing the money raised and spent by […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Bush has a new top career patron
A small number of donations by employees of the credit card giant MBNA Corp. last month was enough to unseat Enron as President George W. Bush‘s top career donor. The Delaware-based company has given Bush $605,041 over his career, while Enron ($602,625) slipped to second, according to a recent supplement to “The Buying of the […]
Posted inDemocracy, Silent Partners
Commentary: Political mugging in America
As Mark Twain once put it, “A truth is not hard to kill and a lie told well is immortal.” In the 21st century in the United States of America, it is still astonishingly easy to assassinate a political opponent’s character, with little or no accountability or basis in fact. It is hardly new to […]
Posted inGenetics, Health
Regulating cloning
Having helped block federal legislation that would ban human cloning for therapeutic purposes, the biotechnology industry is lobbying a handful of state legislatures to pass bills that would legalize the controversial techniques. Five states are currently considering nearly identical measures that the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the industry’s lobbying group, advocates; two other states, California […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Who gives the most money
Investment companies dominated President George W. Bush‘s $47 million fourth quarter fundraising, driven by networks of top individual contributors, according to a recent supplement to “The Buying of the President 2004,” a book by the Center for Public Integrity detailing the financial interests behind each presidential candidate. Trial lawyers led the way for the Democrats […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
From the executive director
Good morning. Please allow me to spend a couple of moments talking about the Center for Public Integrity. We are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that does investigative reporting and research on public policy issues in the United States and around the world. Since 1990 the Center has produced more than 250 investigative reports and 12 […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
‘Full and open debate’
On May 30, 1997, Dick Cheney dispatched a two-page letter to Vice President Al Gore in hopes of staving off new federal regulations that presumably would prove both cumbersome and costly to Halliburton Company, the global oil-field services firm that Cheney had run since 1995. The letter was obtained exclusively by the Center for Public […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Who bankrolls Bush and his Democratic rivals?
Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy firm that touched off a financial, legal and political scandal when it declared bankruptcy in December 2001, remains the top career patron of President George W. Bush, whose prolific fundraising in 2003 shattered all previous records for candidates. Enron’s employees and political action committee have given more than $600,000 to […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Bush Administration thwarts access
If history is any guide, George W. Bush will not seek to undo the regulations that help shroud so many financial transactions from view. After all, his presidency has been characterized by a zeal for secrecy, an unrelenting push to stem the free flow of information. One particularly notable example has been the Administration’s effort […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Methodology, the team for Buying of the President 2004
The Center for Public Integrity publishes this Web site as a public service and it is a companion to a forthcoming book to be released before the presidential primary season. Over the course of a year, 50 researchers, writers and editors investigated the candidates and the political parties, contacting or interviewing more than 600 people […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Kerry’s fundraising shows large corporate donations
John Kerry has made campaign finance reform an issue ever since he first ran for the Senate in 1984. In fact, the Massachusetts Democrat has been such an ardent and outspoken critic of political action committees that he has refused to accept donations from such organizations during all four of his senatorial campaigns. But the […]
Posted inBuying of the President 2004, Democracy, Elections
Trial lawyers help Edwards make his case
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has chosen a fellow member of the Senate and former primary rival John Edwards as his running mate. The Center for Public Integrity profiled Edwards in our New York Times bestselling book, The Buying of the President 2004, an excerpt of which runs below. The Center has also posted […]
Posted inEnvironment
The politics of energy: Oil and gas
The sweeping energy bill now pending in Congress offers a geyser of new tax breaks and other government goodies for energy companies and related industries. Although the 1,200-page bill stalled out in the Senate in November, legislative backers have sworn to revive it early in the 2004 session of Congress. Not surprisingly, the well-connected oil […]
Posted inEnvironment
The politics of energy: Nuclear power
On May 28, 2003, two chairs sat empty at a Las Vegas hearing called by Nevada’s U.S. senators to assess concerns about the Yucca Mountain Project, which the federal government hopes to turn into a permanent graveyard for the nation’s most lethal nuclear waste. Invited witnesses Bob Clark and Don Harris, auditors on the project, […]
Posted inEnvironment
The politics of energy: Coal and Bush’s greenhouse-gas policy
WASHINGTON, December 3, 2003 — Two months after his inauguration, President George W. Bush surprised some supporters by changing his position on carbon dioxide emissions. He had pledged during his campaign for the White House to fight for a new law to reduce air pollution from power plants, but abruptly abandoned his pledge once in […]
Posted inEnvironment
The politics of energy: Coal and the carbon dioxide pledge
WASHINGTON, December 3, 2003 — At the first meeting of President George W. Bush’s cabinet in 2001, then-Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill distributed copies of a speech he had given in 1998 which made a stark warning about global warning: Delaying serious action to address the problem, if only by a few years, could spell “real […]
Posted inEnvironment
The politics of energy: Coal, the Bush administration’s fuel of choice
When George W. Bush was inaugurated on the Capitol steps in January 2001, the coal industry, which had contributed more than $250,000 to his presidential campaign, was battling a series of regulatory efforts that, taken together, threatened to make the dirtiest fossil fuel—and those who mined and burned it—economically unviable. Less than three years later, […]